Do we really need iPhone OS 3.0?

With the launch date of Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 and its limited number of new features you have to wonder if it is going to really be worth the time that it will take to upgrade. After all, the feature list is not impressive with the notable exception of a very small minority of items most can be accomplished through a quick jailbreak. Let’s take a look at a few.

Tethering This is one that should have been available from the beginning but many carriers were already worried about the bandwidth iPhone users would take up so most wanted it blocked. Since iPhone 1.0 you have been able to tether with the use of PDAnet, PDAnet can be found through Cydia and will only cost you a onetime fee of $30. This is much less than the tethering plans I am sure most carriers will levy once they get their heads going. If we discuss a tethering plan in excess of $70/mth, as some rumors suggest, this one-time fee is a winner regardless of iPhone OS 3.0 update being free or not.

MMS [Multi-Media Messaging System] Again you can pick up free applications in the App store and in Cydia for this. There is nothing new to see here, added to this… well AT&T does not have support for this and wont until… Well later. Personally I find it very funny that they are saying this as they have MMS for all of their other phones, just not the iPhone. How much do you want to bet they are looking for ways to charge iPhone users more to use this new feature in the iPhone 3.0 OS.

Copy and PasteHow this got left out of two revisions of the iPhone OS, I have no idea. It is simply ludicrous to think that Apple could not put it in before now. To even classify a phone as a smartphone, the Copy&Paste function is a must. Again a quick trip to Cydia will get you a copy and paste app, without the need to upgrade and deal with the outages that are certain to happen around the 17th.

Video RecordingWow, another one that can be picked up on Cydia or Installer, there are in fact 2 that are out there. One is Video recorder for 3G (a paid app) the other is Cycorder. The one I prefer is Cycorder as it is free right now. Either one is a good option.

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Background applicationsCydia again as Boss has Backgrounder, no need for iPhone OS 3.0 Mail and File Search Cydia for this one too and for applications to let you mass read your e-mail

Now I have only covered a few “new” features here but I think you get the point. With the iPhone OS 3.0 you really are not getting much that is new or cannot be taken care of with Cydia or even the App Store.

But it is not just those features you get; you can actually control your phone, changing the system font, the theme, the sounds, put weather and calendars on your lockscreen, you can even setup multiple iTunes databases so that you can sync with more than one system.

These extras are one of the reasons that Apple is so desperate to make jailbreaking illegal. They really do not want you to have this level of control over your phone. If they did you would be able to download and install your own themes through the App store just like every other app. So on the 17th of June I would stay away from the update and instead heard over the grab qwikpwn. From there you can get 90% of the new features of the iPhone 3.0 OS and much more.